In the first panel of its kind, four transgender intercountry adoptees discuss how the complexities of being both adopted and transgender inform their personal understanding of race, family, and identity.  Is it harder to come out as transgender to the family that adopted you? How do you navigate the decision of searching for your first family as a transgender person? How do your identities as both an international adoptee and transgender interact in your lived experiences? What can other adoptees and adoptive families learn from transgender folk?  Join us for these and other personal insights with an amazing cast of panelists.

Who: Open to public, friends, members, everyone
When: Monday April 26 6:30 pm ET 
Where: Zoom, advanced registration required: https://zoom.us/meeting/register/tJMvdOCspzkrHNeeJww2Bg2JhSNcjvBuxx9x

Ryan Gustafsson is a researcher, writer, and podcaster who lives and works on the unceded lands of the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin nation. A nonbinary and adopted Korean, their writing explores themes including connection, identity, and knowledge. They work at the Asia Institute, the University of Melbourne.

Andy Marra (she / her) is executive director of the Transgender Legal Defense & Education Fund (TLDEF). Prior to TLDEF, she spent five years leading external communications at the Arcus Foundation; managed public relations at GLSEN, a national organization focused on LGBTQ issues in K-12 education; was co-director at Nodutdol for Korean Community Development; and served as a senior media strategist at GLAAD. Andy currently serves on two boards including Freedom for All Americans and Just Detention International. She has previously served on the boards and advisory councils of Chinese for Affirmative Action, the Funding Exchange, Human Rights Campaign, and the National Center for Transgender Equality. Andy has been honored by the White House and the City of New York for her contributions to the LGBTQ community, profiled in The Advocate’s “Forty Under 40,” and listed as one of The Huffington Post’s “Most Compelling LGBT People.” She is also a past recipient of the GLSEN Pathfinder Award, the National LGBTQ Task Force Creating Change Award, NQAPIA Community Catalyst Award, and the Colin Higgins Foundation Courage Award. 

Jin Jiang - Age: 25 - Gender: Non-binary - Pronouns: They/Them/He/Him

Pauline Park is chair of NYAGRA — the New York Association for Gender Rights Advocacy —  the transgender advocacy organization that she co-founded in 1998, and president of the board of directors of Queens Pride House, the LGBT community center of the borough of Queens, which she co-founded in 1997. Pauline has served as coordinator of the transgender support group at Pride House since 2011. Pauline led the campaign for the transgender rights law enacted by the New York City Council in 2002 and in 2005 became the first openly transgendered grand marshal of the New York City LGBT Pride March. She participated in the first US LGBTQ delegation tour of Palestine in January 2012 and in June 2015 was the keynote speaker at the Queer Korea Festival/Seoul Pride Parade, speaking to a crowd estimated at 35,000 — the largest event in the history of the LGBT community of Korea up to that date. In 2009, Pauline was designated "a leading advocate for transgender rights in New York" on Idealist in New York City's 'New York 40' list. In October 2012, she was one of 54 individuals named to a list of "The Most Influential LGBT Asian Icons"  by the Huffington Post. In November 2012, Pauline was named to a list of "50  Transgender Icons" for Transgender Day of Remembrance 2012.